A majority of farmers and others holding some of California's strongest claims to water have missed a deadline to confirm they stopped pumping from rivers and streams, state officials said Monday.
Data show less than a third of the farmers, water districts and communities affected by California's broadest mandatory cut on record responded to the order by the State Water Resources Control Board.
The order applied to 277 century-old rights to water from the Sacramento, San Joaquin and delta watersheds in the agriculture-rich Central Valley.
Some of those rights holders are challenging the cuts in court so they can keep irrigating crops and taking care of livestock.
Water rights enforcement manager Kathy Mrowka said she was still reviewing the response data and didn't have an immediate explanation for why it lagged.
The senior water rights holders who didn't respond to the water board were expected to take about 200,000 acre feet of water over the summer, a small sliver of the state's total water use.
She previously said entities that ignore the water board would be the first to face inspections and enforcement. The punishment for taking water is $1,000 a day and $2,500 per acre foot, enough water to fill an acre of land one foot deep.
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Some people that have not responded to the board may not be illegally taking water because the streams and creeks to which they hold rights have dried out.
Those ordered to stop diverting from waterways have other options, including tapping groundwater, buying water at rising costs, using previously stored water or leaving fields unplanted.
Regulators have already ordered thousands of other entities with less secure claims known as junior water rights to stop pumping. Only about a third of them have confirmed they stopped diverting water, although the ones that did respond are among the biggest water users.
